How to format your references using the Nucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue citation style

This is a short guide how to format citations and the bibliography in a manuscript for Nucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue. For a complete guide how to prepare your manuscript refer to the journal's instructions to authors.

Using reference management software

Typically you don't format your citations and bibliography by hand. The easiest way is to use a reference manager:

Paperpile	The citation style is built in and you can choose it in Settings > Citation Style or Paperpile > Citation Style in Google Docs.
EndNote	Find the style here: output styles overview
Mendeley, Zotero, Papers, and others	The style is either built in or you can download a CSL file that is supported by most references management programs.
BibTeX	BibTeX syles are usually part of a LaTeX template. Check the instructions to authors if the publisher offers a LaTeX template for this journal.

Journal articles

Those examples are references to articles in scholarly journals and how they are supposed to appear in your bibliography.

Not all journals organize their published articles in volumes and issues, so these fields are optional. Some electronic journals do not provide a page range, but instead list an article identifier. In a case like this it's safe to use the article identifier instead of the page range.

A journal article with 1 author

1. Nicholls,H. (2011) The art of conservation. Nature, 472, 287–289.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21512551

A journal article with 2 authors

1. Poon,A.C. and Ferrell,J.E.,Jr (2007) Systems biology. A clock with a flip switch. Science, 318, 757–758.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17975056

A journal article with 3 authors

1. Moran,N.A., McLaughlin,H.J. and Sorek,R. (2009) The dynamics and time scale of ongoing genomic erosion in symbiotic bacteria. Science, 323, 379–382.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19150844

A journal article with 11 or more authors

1. Ponti,A., Machacek,M., Gupton,S.L., Waterman-Storer,C.M. and Danuser,G. (2004) Two distinct actin networks drive the protrusion of migrating cells. Science, 305, 1782–1786.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15375270

Books and book chapters

Here are examples of references for authored and edited books as well as book chapters.

An authored book

1. Budisa,N. (2005) Engineering the Genetic Code Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim, FRG.

An edited book

1. Komosinski,M. and Adamatzky,A. eds. (2009) Artificial Life Models in Software Springer, London.

A chapter in an edited book

1. Sandberg,R. (2014) Least Absolute Deviation Based Unit Root Tests in Smooth Transition Type of Models. In Schleer-van Gellecom,F. (ed), Advances in Non-linear Economic Modeling: Theory and Applications, Dynamic Modeling and Econometrics in Economics and Finance. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, pp. 141–166.

Web sites

Sometimes references to web sites should appear directly in the text rather than in the bibliography. Refer to the Instructions to authors for Nucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue.

Blog post

1. Andrew,E. (2015) Astronomers Present Sharpest Images Yet Of Gas Cloud Passing Supermassive Black Hole. IFLScience.

Reports

This example shows the general structure used for government reports, technical reports, and scientific reports. If you can't locate the report number then it might be better to cite the report as a book. For reports it is usually not individual people that are credited as authors, but a governmental department or agency like "U. S. Food and Drug Administration" or "National Cancer Institute".

Government report

1. Government Accountability Office (2010) Cybersecurity: Key Challenges Need to Be Addressed to Improve Research and Development U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.

Theses and dissertations

Theses including Ph.D. dissertations, Master's theses or Bachelor theses follow the basic format outlined below.

Doctoral dissertation

1. Valadez,I. (2010) A psycho-education peer support group for homeless youth: A grant proposal.

News paper articles

Unlike scholarly journals, news papers do not usually have a volume and issue number. Instead, the full date and page number is required for a correct reference.

New York Times article

1. Wagner,J. (2017) With Loss and an Injury, It’s Just Another Day for the Mets. New York Times.

In-text citations

References should be cited in the text by sequential numbers in parentheses:

This sentence cites one reference (1).
This sentence cites two references (1, 2).
This sentence cites four references (1–4).

About the journal

Full journal title	Nucleic Acids Research - Web Server Issue
Abbreviation	Nucleic Acids Res.
ISSN (print)	0305-1048
ISSN (online)	1362-4962
Scope	Genetics